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Huntly man Stu Elliott gave up his job as a boat builder in Hamilton to join the trainee scheme at Solid Energy's Huntly mine and feared eights months on he could be back looking for work.

Already some miners had stopped coming to work so they could look for other jobs, he said.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union assistant national secretary Ged O'Connell said if the Government invested in the company, it could hold off some of the worst aspects of yesterday's announcement.

The Government needed to be convinced to put some of the $170 million profits from the past five or six years back into the company.

Mr Key and Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce yesterday indicated the Government was unlikely to save Spring Creek.

Mr Joyce told National Radio that Solid Energy managers had already spoken to the Spring Creek miners about their plan.

"It's going to take another $50 million to $70 million ... to get the mine to a point where it could produce again and the last time the mine was producing it was still losing money.

Mr Key said the job cuts were not a sign of economic malaise.

"The economy always loses jobs and creates jobs - the challenge is whether it's creating more jobs than it's losing and in the last couple of years we've created 50,000 extra jobs under very trying international conditions."

What could go

Solid Energy yesterday proposed slashing about 230 jobs at its Spring Creek mine near Greymouth and 63 at the Huntly East Mine in Waikato.

It also proposed cutting half its corporate, support services and development jobs.

The measures could reduce its workforce to about 1360 - down from 1800 at the start of the year.

The company currently operates five New Zealand mines: Huntly East; Spring Creek; Rotowaro, also near Huntly; Stockton north of Greymouth; and New Vale in Southland.